Calvinist Innocent Gentillet's (1535-88) criticism of Machiavelli's militia army: a response of nobiliary France to Dell'arte della guerra
Abstract
Although being one of Machiavelli's least known and studied works nowadays, the treatise Dell'arte della guerra (1521) found rapid circulation in 16th century Europe. Published in Paris in 1546 (in translation by Jean Charrier), the work was critically analysed a few decades later in the definitive version of the Discours d'Estat contre Machiavel (Geneva, 1585) by the Calvinist jurist Innocent Gentillet. This article presents the arguments offered by Gentillet against the army of citizen militias proposed by Machiavelli. We show the interrelation of this polemic with the criticisms addressed by Gentillet to other Machiavelli's writings (in particular Il Principe and Discorsi). In Gentillet’s Discours we find the first systematic criticism to Machiavelli's political and social thought. At the same time, the treatise can be consider as the virulent response of nobiliary France to the neo-Roman republicanism defended by Machiavelli.
Format
Crossmark
License
In order to support the global exchange of knowledge, the journal Las Torres de Lucca. International Journal of Political Philosophy is allowing unrestricted access to its content as from its publication in this electronic edition, and as such it is an open-access journal. The originals published in this journal are the property of the Complutense University of Madrid and any reproduction thereof in full or in part must cite the source. All content is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 use and distribution licence (CC BY 4.0). This circumstance must be expressly stated in these terms where necessary. You can view the summary and the complete legal text of the licence.
